TH2 Overloud vs Pod HD Pro

Well stokedboss I would say it all depends on what your needs are. Will you be playing live or are you just playing in studios. Will you be in jam sessions with other people or is the only thing your concerned with is recording music? I say this because there is a hardware aspect to this. I Had a Pod XT live with all the model packs and it worked great for a while.

Be advised that if you choose to you can download Gearbox for your Pod XT. You can copy the dll files into Cakewalks default plugin folder. Gearbox will show up as a plug in. It is unlocked for use when the Pod is connected via USB.

I Sold my Pod XT live and purchased a Pod X3 pro rack mount unit. The X3 sounds much better then the xt series and you can get them used pretty cheap these days. If you own any X3 you can download and use Pod Farm for free. Pod Farm has 97 pedal effects 78 guitar amps 28 bass amps 6 mic preamps 24 guitar cabs 22 bass cabs and 8 mics. One of the guitar amps is an acoustic guitar amp. All this is built inside the X3 so you can take it live with you anywhere. Pod farm will download and work inside Sonar for free as long as the x3 is plugged in via USB. So if you pick up a used 3x for 2 or 3 hundred bucks you will get Pod Farm in all it's glory.

These sound much better then anything that is XT. But if you go HD then the sound is improved so i'm told even more. I noticed little difference. The draw back with the HD line is there are no bass amps there is one bass cab but no bass amps. There are 29 guitar amps that are remade from the X3 line. You still get to use Pod Farm for free if you own one. They should sound better then the X3 line. but the X3 line sounds great too.

TH2 does not have any bass amps. They do not have an acoustic guitar amp, and they don't have any hardware. but the features on a software level blow Pod Farm out of the water.

They have 18 mics, 70 effects, The ability to make your own amp models, you can have longer effects chains and route in ways that you can"t on Pod Farm. You can use IRs for cabinets. You can use up to four mics for each cabinet. (2 sm57 and 2 of the 18 mics listed) of those mics you can place them any way you like. You can have a much longer signal chain. So you can see the ability to customize your own tone with greater versatility and features.

I would say if you plan on jamming with people or playing live then you should consider Pod Farm. If your just looking for something to record with then TH2 is the way to go. Continue to experiment with the pro version inside Sonar. Use the gearbox plugin and compare the features side by side.

Thanks for the replies, I only intend to do studio recording. I see that Line 6 is now offering a version 2.0 update for the POD HD, which does include an Ampeg amp for bass guitars. I do record bass frequently and need a modeller or amp to record, which is why I was leaning towards the POD HD pro, but I'm just not sure if it's worth paying the extra $600 for it, if I can get similar tone out of a $100 plugin. 

I have a HD500 and this is what I think. I tried the TH2 demo during the wait for X2 to be released and overall I like it. I never did get the distorted tones I was after, but I don't do metal or real heavy music so, I didn't go there (more of a Santana kind of thing). I think TH2 is worth the $99 upgrade and plan to do it myself at some point, but for now I'm sticking with the HD. The main complaint about the HD is the cabs and lack of mic placement options. Now what I did was, instead of upgrading TH2 I bought MixIR2 from redwirez and bought a few IRs. I'm trying to get the elusive distorted tones I seek and to tell you the truth I haven't been able to find it with anything so far (I'm getting closer with redwirez). I think both the HD500 and TH2 have great clean tones...the very first patch in TH2 producer is pretty good without tweaking at all.
  If you haven't read up much on it,I would look close at the HD pro. I could never see the point in it. The HD500 does everything it does for less money and it comes with foot switches. I also have a DT50. This is were you truly see the value of the new HD line. My HD500 + DT50 is the best rig I've ever had. I hope I've been of some help. If you have any more questions HD related feel free to ask. I've had it for a couple of years now and now my way around pretty good. To clarify a couple of points the HD does have one bass amp (ampeg) with its own mics and one cab. The HD500 does not come with pod farm. It does have an excellent editor. Sorry for my poor grammer. I'm a musician my daughter is the english major! hahaha